Introduction

"The environment, left to itself, can continue to support life for millions of years. The single most unstable and potentially disruptive element in the scheme is the human species" — so runs an old, anonymous warning printed at the head of this chapter, and it could just as easily have been written about India's own recent growth story. Human beings, armed with modern technology, have the power to bring about far-reaching and often irreversible change to the world around them, intentionally or not.

The development India has achieved so far has carried a hidden bill: much of it was paid for by declining environmental quality. As the country enters an era of globalisation that holds out the promise of faster growth, it cannot ignore the damage the earlier growth path did to nature, and must instead deliberately choose a route that can be sustained over the long run.

To see why the old path is unsustainable and why the switch to sustainable development is difficult, one first has to appreciate how much the environment actually contributes to economic life. Keeping that in view, the chapter is organised in three parts:

• The functions and role of the environment — what nature does for the economy.
• The present state of India's environment — the pressures and damage it faces.
• The strategies and steps for sustainable development — how growth can continue without wrecking the resource base.